Everything in the plane came to a smooth, easeful stop, and the faint humming vanished.
Everyone on board the plane traded glances—every student of Hogwarts, and every student of Mahoutokoro—and outside, where the star-spangled aircraft sat now stationary in a wide open field amid the trees of Mt. Greylock, Arius excitedly speed-walked around the front of the plane, stopping in front of the other teachers who had already climbed out as well.
Crowley, Hagrid, Slughorn, Longbottom, and a few others stood in front of the nose of the plane, all of them upturning their heads and gazing up the only visible path away from the enormous field—a vast, expansive stretch of dirt and beaten-down grass that appeared to lead further up the mountain, in between hundreds of trees, and—as they all knew—directly to the threshold of Ilvermorny.
Arius wandered to the front of the crowd of teachers, adjusting his darkened goggles, gazing up the path and smirking, releasing a faint little laugh. The mountain and the trees harbored faint mists of fog, but through his black goggles—as inconspicuous as they were bewitched—he was able to see the path with total clarity.
"Ehe," he smiled. "Ohhh, now this is exciting."
Crowley eyed him curtly from behind. "M-hm. I suppose it is, particularly for you."
Arius's smile grew as he stared down the open path.
Hagrid made a face, turning and giving Crowley a questioning look.
Crowley spotted his odd expression, folding his arms and shifting his black cloak as he did.
"Emmett Orion Arius was one of the very few students of Hogwarts who was lucky enough to undergo an exchange program during his youth," Crowley explained. "During which—he was a student at Ilvermorny."
"Eh?" Hagrid's eyes shot over to Arius. "Issat right…?"
"Oh yes," Arius exhaled, still seeming transfixed by the path ahead. "I spent my final year of school here… as will all of our seventh-years now."
"Well… that's hardly the most interesting part of the story," Crowley added, his eyes narrowing at the back of the headmaster's head. "He tried to get a girl to move across the pond with him when he was forced to return home. A girl who… as I've heard… is a teacher here now."
"Ehe," Arius grinned once again. "Our life paths took us in separate directions… until now."
"Ahm. Shouldn't we be telling the students to depart the aircraft now?" Slughorn spoke up, raising a finger and glancing back at the plane. "It seems Mahoutokoro is already doing so."
The Hogwarts teachers all turned around except for Arius, observing as the door on the left side of the plane—the one on the Mahoutokoro side—extended outward, and the Japanese students began marching off the aircraft, following their teachers off to a different mountain path.
"Why're they all goin' over that way?" Hagrid wondered.
"Haruto and his teachers wish to establish their home base here before making their first appearance in the school. Won't take them long," Crowley said, turning back and surveying Arius from behind again. "So… do you think we'll actually be going to the school anytime today, or shall we stand here and continue to wait for the grass to grow?"
"Oh… be quiet. I'm basking here," Arius mumbled, still gazing ahead, gently upturning his head slightly more and observing the late afternoon sky. "I imagine they're all done with their sorting by now…"
"Yes… which means we can go now," Crowley uttered impatiently.
"Shush. Let me indulge in this nervousness for a moment," Arius mumbled in response, fidgeting with the top of his cane. "I've not felt it in a long time."
"I can't imagine why you'd be nervous. It's not as if Raven is still interested," Crowley chided. "She's probably married by now."
Arius blinked, his smile vanishing. He turned to Crowley, his mouth hanging slightly agape, and—even with goggles covering his eyes—he clearly wore a downtrodden expression now.
"Now why would you go and say that?" Arius exhaled. "That's just mean."
"Oh… that's funny," Crowley replied, flashing a snide sort of smile. "You're regarding me as if we've never met before."
Arius opened his mouth to retort, then paused, turning fully around and seeing that Hagrid had already called the students off the plane. The right doorway stood open and outright now, complete with its staircase, and many waves of Hogwarts students were stepping off of Flight 1776, marching across the grass and gathering in groups as many of them glanced around their new environment.
Crowley marched off to the students, snapping his fingers and gathering their attention. "Bags and trunks stay on the plane, and they'll be taken to our quarters after we go and greet our hosts at Ilvermorny. Gather up, now—come on!"
Alice, Zander, and the rest of their group made their way to the front of the crowd, all of them spotting the path that stretched farther up the mountain.
Arius finally turned away from the path entirely, facing the endless mob of students and smirking at them.
"Well!" he said loudly, warranting their attention. "Here we are—at the threshold of greatness! Follow me, and we'll be seated and greeted by Headmaster Fontaine and the lovely people of Ilvermorny. Come along, and stay close!"
At that, Arius whirled around, raised his cane, and motioned forward, marching toward the path as a great wave of students began to trail after him.
Everyone marched up the path for a few minutes, scarcely speaking—aside from the hushed chatter among a few groups of friends—and they walked farther and farther from Flight 1776 until the plane behind them was no longer in sight.
When the Hogwarts crowd was surrounded only by trees and fog, still with nothing visible ahead of or behind them, Alice glanced around, then slightly quickened her pace, reaching Arius's side and giving him a curious look.
"Professor?" she said as they walked. "Is there… um… is there anything living in this forest?"
"Oh yes," Arius replied with an odd nonchalance. "Why do you think I said to stay close?"
Alice narrowed her eyes at him. "How can there be anything on the school grounds if… y'know… if it's school grounds? Don't they keep it safe like Hogwarts…?"
"Oh… we're not on the school grounds, but we will be in just a moment," Arius explained to her. "We couldn't very well land an aircraft at their front door, now could we? Hard to find a good spot for landing up on a mountain. And…"
The headmaster slowed to a stop, as did Alice, and everyone behind them slowly did the same.
"It seems our escort is here now," Arius observed, smiling at the figure that had appeared farther down the path.
Alice squinted at it—a humanoid figure, striding forward and emerging from the fog, though it appeared to be a short, stocky person. Zander and James leaned out from behind either of her shoulders, eyeballing the figure as well, and numerous Hogwarts students erupted in chatter at the sight of it, trading hushed whispers and muttering questions about what or who it could be.
"What is that… a goblin?" James breathed, making a strange face at it.
"Goblins aren't native to America," Zander knew.
"No… they are not," Arius affirmed with a nod. "In America… they have pukwudgies."
The short, stocky person—the pukwudgie—drew near, coming clearer into view. He wore average, though somewhat worn dark clothes, a bow and an assortment of arrows affixed to his back. He had a head of short, sandy hair with many gray streaks, a sharp widow's peak hairline, large pointed ears, and a rather pensive expression strewn across his goblin-like face.
Everyone in the Hogwarts crowd fell entirely silent as the pukwudgie stopped before them, and Arius simply maintained his smile, taking a step forward and offering his hand.
"William," the headmaster said kindly. "I haven't seen you in quite a while."
The pukwudgie—William—merely stared at him, making no move to return the handshake.
"Ah." Arius slowly withdrew his hand, chuckling and coiling shut his gloved fingers. "Just as friendly as I remember."
"Hngh," William grunted, his eyes flickering over to the side, fixating on Alice for a second before scoping along the rest of the crowd.
"Are you ready for us?" Arius asked.
William said nothing at first, then made a nod before turning away.
"Follow," he ordered, motioning for everyone to join him as he began marching back from where he came. "And stay close—because I won't be making any round trips on and off the grounds again. If you get lost out here—well—you just get lost out here."
William continued strolling forward, Arius laughing before following him. Alice and Zander traded odd looks before breaking into a stride again, and before long, the entire school of Hogwarts was heading up the path once more.
"Well he's a friendly sort," James grumped.
"It's just in his nature," Lorcan commented.
"Yes—ze pukwudgie is a very independent type," Tobias informed, grinning at William in the distance and looking fascinated. "And I believe ze school of Ilvermorny is staffed by zem."
"They are," Rose stated knowingly, nodding with confirmation and swiping her ponytail back. "Hogwarts had things like Filch or house elves—but Ilvermorny has pukwudgies."
"He looked like…" Alice murmured.
Zander glanced over at her while they all continued to walk, spotting a thoughtful expression on her face. She was staring down at the grass and dirt, just before glimpsing up and squinting interestingly at William in the distance.
"Eh. I'm imagining it," Alice mumbled dismissively.
"Imagining what?" Zander asked her.
"No, nothing, it just…" Alice said, shaking her head once and shrugging. "It looked like he was giving me a glare for a second. I dunno…"
Zander blinked, then stared at William far ahead of them, studying him curiously.
But, moments later, William marching ahead of them was no longer the object of anyone's interest; the trees on either side seemed to come to a vast, open clearing, and before them, a building beyond the fog slowly came into view, towering high on Mt. Greylock with a magnificent presence, turrets standing high and two marble statues at either side of the great, elegant doorway. The students of Hogwarts found themselves approaching the fantastic castle of Ilvermorny, gazing up at it in wonder as everyone drew steadily closer, just before they all slowed to a stop.
"It's like Hogwarts," James uttered, staring directly above himself, his eyes moving from turret to turret. "But more… I guess more… well, I wanna say new, but it doesn't really look new…"
"It was founded a few hundred years ago," Zander said, gazing up at the castle alongside his friends. "It's pretty old for a country so young."
While the students ogled the incredible castle, a couple of other pukwudgies visible marching about the grounds in the distance on either side—and while William turned back to face them, standing at the enormous doors and waiting impatiently for the students to keep following—Alice's eyes wandered over to the side, landing on the marble statue standing nearest her.
The two marble statues at either side of the entrance were of James and Isolt, the founders of the school—and Alice took a step closer to the statue of Isolt Sayre, surveying it with captivation.
Isolt Sayre had long hair, a somber visage, a smooth, beautiful face, and a dress from a time far gone. The statue of her stood perfectly still, her head slightly bowed, and Alice found herself gazing deeply into it, suddenly unable to believe how very far she was from home now.
She stood before a piece of history—a monument to history that wasn't actually so far from her, or at least, she felt so gazing upon it now, observing the statue of the Irish woman who had founded her very own wizarding school so long ago. She almost felt as if she could relate in some way, though Alice knew she herself had never accomplished anything truly remarkable as Isolt Sayre had.
Zander looked to the side and saw Alice standing at the statue, then strolled over to her, stopping at her side and staring up at the statue as well.
"Huh," he muttered. "You kinda look like her."
Alice took a moment to tear her eyes from the statue, then gave Zander a strange stare.
"I can't see how," she said honestly.
"No, I don't mean… not the hair, or the dress," Zander elaborated, shaking his head and gesturing up to the face of Isolt Sayre. "Just the face. You've got a face like hers."
Alice paused, squinting up at the statue bizarrely. "Do I…?"
"Hey," someone snapped at them.
Alice and Zander both turned—seeing that William was glaring daggers at them now, jabbing his thumb back at the doors behind him.
"Away from the statue," William ordered. "Get inside. Now."
Alice and Zander both raised their brows, exchanging looks with each other before marching back over to the rest of the crowd. William grumbled something under his breath, swatting once at the doors—and then, they began to ease open.
"Don't mind the statues inside—just walk under the balcony and go into the main hall," William instructed as people began to walk past him.
Arius led his students into the large, circular room just past the doorway; the room had a high glass ceiling, a rounded cupola, and a similarly rounded balcony stood over the room from the second floor. However, the most impressive thing in the room was undoubtedly the four wooden statues directly across from the entrance. One depicted a pukwudgie, one was a thunderbird, one was a wampus, and one was a horned serpent, all of them sitting perfectly still in their usual spots, Hogwarts students pausing to marvel at them as they all walked inside.
"This is where their sorting is done," Rose knew, glimpsing over at her friends. "The statues react to the student standing in the middle, there. If the statue reacts to you—then that means that particular house wants you. The horned serpent seeks scholars, the wampus seeks warriors, the pukwudgie seeks healers, and the thunderbird seeks adventurers."
"Blimey… that's a bit hard to decode," James mumbled, scratching his cheek and eyeing the statues. "Not quite as on-the-nose as the Hogwarts houses, are they…?"
"Oh, please. You can understand it just fine. You just have to not be thick," Rose told him curtly, giving him a smile before rejoining the rest of the crowd.
James made a face at her from behind before following suit.
"Which ones would we have been, y'think…?" Alice mumbled over to Zander, examining each of the statues thoughtfully.
"I think Horned Serpent and Thunderbird are most like Ravenclaw and Gryffindor," Zander remarked. "So that'd leave a Slytherin and a Hufflepuff going into Wampus and Pukwudgie… I think… I dunno, their houses aren't exactly like ours…"
"Come on, come on, come on," Arius urged, appearing behind them and ushering them back into the moving crowd. "We can all do our sight-seeing later. We have a dinner to attend—and then I have to show you two where your little getaway is."
Alice almost gasped, wheeling around and facing the headmaster. "Is it here—?!"
"Yes, Alice—but we've got a dinner with Ilvermorny, and then we have to set up our actual temporary home for the year," Arius told her. "And then I'll show you two to your special secret spot. Sounds dandy? All right. Move along now."
He nudged them forward, and Alice and Zander rejoined the rest of the Hogwarts crowd, all of them marching beneath the balcony and entering another doorway underneath it. Everyone made their way out of the entrance and headed into the main hall, which was—as Alice and Zander now saw—fairly reminiscent of the great hall of Hogwarts, a great, humongous room with many elongated tables up and down it, the teacher's table at the very end. Hundreds of students with blue robes filled the tables across the enormous room, and—rather than candles—countless lit lanterns hovered high above everyone's heads, keeping the massive room fully illuminated as the Hogwarts students marched in.
Many heads turned as the newcomers to Ilvermorny entered the main hall—American witches and wizards ogling them with interest as they all walked inside—and at the podium before the teacher's table, a man with a hat and a long silver beard stood, Headmaster Fontaine, waiting patiently for the newcomers to fill the room before he spoke.
"And now—we welcome our brothers and sisters from Hogwarts!" Fontaine announced, warranting a brief wave of applause from the students. "Everyone, clear some room, and let our guests have a seat."
All of the Ilvermorny students began scooting and shifting around their tables, clearing up space and allowing the Hogwarts students to seat themselves as well. Alice, Zander, and the rest of their group simply chose to seat themselves around the end of the nearest table, and Arius and Crowley strode across the main hall, approaching the headmaster.
"Emmett," Fontaine said, his silvery mustache forming around a grin. "Good to see you."
"And you," Arius replied with a smile and nod. "I see you've graduated from simply teaching here. Well done."
"Yes… and you've graduated from being the nicest known troublemaker I've ever seen in my student body," Fontaine replied with whimsy. "I do hope you've grown out of it by now."
"Oho… never," Arius smirked.
As the two headmasters spoke—and as Arius glimpsed up and down the teacher's table, spotting a woman with short dark hair—Crowley turned around, seeing that more students with various colors of robes were now entering the main hall, led by Headmaster Akamine, a middle-aged Japanese man who wore a dark navy kimono, his graying black hairs tied back, and his expression rather peaceful as he meandered toward the front.
"And here we have the lovely ladies and gentlemen all the way from Japan—our brothers and sisters from Mahoutokoro," Fontaine announced, the crowd clapping for the newcomers yet again. "Make room, everyone, make room…"
Once more, the endless mob of students struggled to make room at their tables, and the students of Mahoutokotro seated themselves up and down the tables as the Hogwarts students had. Once everyone was seated—Arius, Fontaine, and Akamine all stood together in front of the teacher's table, and everyone in the main hall fell silent, waiting for them to speak.
"As you all know… this year, we have the great, great pleasure of hosting the Triwizard Tournament," Fontaine began, his voice echoing across all three schools of students. "And, overseeing the tournament from MACUSA, a fantastic auror, overseer of regulations, and detective-inspector—we have Vance Calloway."
Fontaine motioned behind him, gesturing to a man sitting at the edge of the teacher's table. The man stood, straightening up and striding out to join the headmasters. This man—Vance Calloway—wore a long tan trench coat, a dark suit underneath, and he had a head of short black hair, a wide, sharply-carved face and a pair of pensive blue eyes dominating his stoic and unreadable visage.
"Oh Christ," Zander breathed, gazing across the room at the man, his mouth drifting open. "I didn't know he'd be here…"
Alice nearly laughed at him.
"Overseer of regulations…?" Rose whispered, turning and giving her friends a peculiar look. "I don't remember that having anything to do with being an auror."
"Doesn't matter," Zander muttered. "Security's high because of the Shadow Hand—so they probably just gave him whatever rank he needed to be here at all times. Makes sense."
"You should ask for his autograph," Alice murmured with a smile.
Zander shot her a look.
"As stipulated in the tournament proceeding this one—no witch or wizard under the age of seventeen may enter their name in the Goblet of Fire," Fontaine continued, turning back and raising his hand above a long, tall object that was covered by a gray sheet. "And—you'll have one week to enter your name in before the goblet makes its choice."
He flung the sheet off of the object—revealing the magnificent old Goblet of Fire, a flame of deep blue burning perfectly in its center.
"And." Fontaine faced the crowd, raised a finger, and surveyed every student before him rather intensely, looking and sounding entirely serious now. "Make no mistake. This is not a tournament you enter lightly. This is not a game you play simply for the sake of fun or winning. This is the first Triwizard Tournament since the rise of the most powerful dark wizard of all time, which—unfortunately—came as a result of the last tournament. A student's life was lost—and many more lives were claimed in the times that followed just after. We do not reinitiate the Triwizard Tournament lightly—nor should you enter it lightly. And I want everyone in this room to understand that, loud and clear."
An air of severity overtook the main hall, every student deathly silent.
Alice fidgeted with the sleeve of her robe, staring at the front of the room with a hardened expression now.
Zander took a deep breath, making a mild little nod as he continued to listen.
Fontaine began to list off the regular rules around the tournament, and then, he spoke of the regular schooling schedule, explaining that students of Hogwarts and Mahoutokoro would be attending the Ilvermorny classes alongside Ilvermorny's regular student body. Once the headmaster had concluded his speech, he beckoned a nearby pukwudgie and instructed him to bring out the welcoming dinner for the newcomer schools.
As dinner began—and as pukwudgies walked up and down tables, waving their hands and materializing food along them left and right—Alice continued staring forward, even long after the headmasters were seated, and after the atmosphere of seriousness seemed to have left everyone else.
She gazed into the distant blue flame of the Goblet of Fire, feeling more certain than she ever had that entering the tournament was the right thing for her to do.